The Attorney-General, Controller of Budget and the Auditor-General are among State officers whose salaries and allowances have been inflated by between Sh7 and Sh10 million in the current 2023/24 financial year (FY).

The move has created room for misuse of taxpayers’ money which should otherwise be channeled towards development expenses. Allocations to Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) – held by the National treasury – show salary budget for the three officeholders almost tripled, despite receiving their rightful amounts as gazetted.

CFS often covers obligatory payments like public debt, pensions and gratuities, and salaries and allowances.

In the first quarter of the current budget cycle, the CFS salaries, allowances, and miscellaneous (SAMs) estimates indicate that the office of the attorney general, for instance, was paid a total of Sh2.87 million in the three months ending September 2023.

Figures not tallying

It means the Attorney General’s office should receive roughly Sh11.48 million cumulatively by the end of the full FY, but the printed estimates indicate the salary budget will hit Sh19.3 million cumulatively. This is Sh7.82 million extra allocations.

In the same first quarter, the controller of budget (CoB) was equally paid Sh2.38 million in salaries and allowance, reflecting a total of Sh9.52 million that is payable in the full year ending June 2024.
This is against the Sh18.36 million total printed budgeted estimates for the officeholder and payable via the CFS, which is a Sh8.84 million overshoot.

While appearing before the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning committee, CoB Margret Nyakang’o questioned who pockets the overshoot since she only receives the gazetted salary of about Sh765,000 per month.

“I am puzzled. I don’t know who is receiving that money. Our salaries as public officeholders are known to everybody. These are not what we own,” Nyakang’o told the Committee led by Molo legislator Kuria Kimani.

The CoB noted that if the same budget inflation has been maintained in all the commissions that receive lumpsum payment via CFS held by the National Treasury, then taxpayers could be losing billions of shillings in budgeted corruption.

“This is expenditure return; it has to be based on the actual figure as provided in the law,” said Nyakang’o.

The Auditor General, who receives a basic monthly salary of Sh924,000, was paid a total of Sh2.87 million in the first quarter of the budget year. By this rate, it implies the auditor should get a full-year salary remuneration amounting to Sh11.48 million by the end of June 2024.

There was, however, a Sh10.22 million overshoot as the national treasury placed a printed estimate totaling Sh21.6 million to pay the auditor in that period.

The Finance and National Planning Committee is now sensing that similar discrepancies could exist in various commissions like the Judicial Services Commission, Teachers Service Commission, and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBS), which have different salary scales for public servants.

The committee now wants the National Treasury, which is expected to appear before parliament next Wednesday, to explain the discrepancies in the salary payments.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. An audit needs to be done on other state officers’ salary budgets and payments. The CoB highlighted very many issues that must be addressed,” said Committee chair Kimani.